


A Ghost Cryptid

by HellsLittleLiar



Category: Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator
Genre: F/M, Gen, Ghosts, M/M, Multi, No Dialogue, Poly, Robert's dream come true lol, but he is a cryptid, he's TECHNICALLY not dead
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-01
Updated: 2017-09-01
Packaged: 2018-12-22 16:15:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11971002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HellsLittleLiar/pseuds/HellsLittleLiar
Summary: When Mary's best ever friend Robert comes back from holiday, she doesn't understand why nobody else is able to see him.





	A Ghost Cryptid

Mary knew there was something different about Robert. That's what made him special. She had always known there was something different about him, even before that summer he went away with his parents and everyone claimed that he never came back. His parents never talked about it - only looked uncomfortably at each other whenever Mary knocked on their door to play. 

 

It was her own parents that eventually took her aside and told her not to go to Robert's any more. It was upsetting Mr and Mrs Smalls for some reason Mary wasn't too sure about. It took six months of overhearing her parent's whispered arguments late at night before Mary understood what the problem seemed to be. Everyone seemed to think that her best friend, Robert, had gone missing in the woods when he was on holiday with his parents. Mary tried her hardest to understand why this was upsetting everyone so much when Robert had been found. He was right there! 

 

Her parents didn't think her finding Robert was a good thing. They thought that finding Robert meant she had to go talk to a very nice lady every Monday morning. Mary didn't mind because this meant she missed school for a couple of hours. First Grade sure was tough. It was nothing at all like Kindergarten. Mary didn't mind, that is, until Mrs Jones started trying to claim that Robert didn't exist. That he was just a figment of her imagination. That he never existed. Of course Mary bit her, she explained to her exasperated parents. She was trying to convince me that my best friend never existed. Her parents exchanged glances. The kind of look that told Mary they were talking to each other in their heads. They never talked in their heads unless it was about her! It wasn't fair that she wasn't allowed to know what they were thinking when it was about her. They called her Sweetie and Pumpkin as they shared secret glances and explained that Robert used to be real but he wasn't anymore because he went missing. And he hadn't been found for months. And he would more than likely never be found. No matter how much Mary protested that she had just seen him yesterday, her parents didn't seem to want to listen. Instead they promised they would find a new lady for her to talk to. One who would explain things properly.

 

The new lady did not explain things properly. The new lady thought that Mary would like her colourful sock puppets. Mary did not like the new lady or her disgusting puppets. Mary bit her and wasn't even sorry when the lady cried. 

Her parents were disappointed. Mary didn't care. She decided that she no longer had time for people who saw what was right in front of their eyes. Robert was right in front of them and they all just ignored him. Mary and Robert had even been holding hands at one point when her mother had pulled her aside to tell her Robert was confirmed missing. Confirmed missing meant he had gone to visit heaven and was never ever coming back. Robert and Mary did not let go of each others hands the whole time. Her mother narrowed her eyes at Mary's hand, which rested in an awkward position and asked Mary if she thought she was holding hands with Robert right now. Mary said no and her mother left her alone, relieved she was finally getting somewhere. Mary didn't just think she was holding hands with Robert. 

She knew.

Mary knew she must have given her mother the right answer as she was left alone to play immediately after.

 

Robert had never been very talkative. His teachers were constantly describing him as shy even though he was the most confident person Mary knew. Just because Robert didn't like to talk didn't mean that he never did. Sometimes he told her stories about cript-ids and ghosts. He always stopped talking the second an adult was within hearing distance - even his own parents. He was even quieter now that everybody thought he was missing. He still told her cript-id stories but when she asked about the ghosts, he smiled sadly and wouldn't meet her eyes.

 

Mary stopped asking about the ghosts. 

 

Several years on and Mary had realised a few things. She realised the reason Robert no longer talked about ghosts. She realised why the adults in her life all claimed not to be able to see him. She realised that if she held Robert's hand a certain way, then nobody would notice and question it. Most importantly of all, she realised that if she just stopped talking about Robert, everyone would assume she stopped seeing him. 

  
Not that she stopped talking to him. While in the presence of others, they merely sat in comfortable silence. Mary didn't want everyone to forget about Robert but she couldn't stand meeting up with any more therapists, once she knew what they were. A few white lies was all it took as they were convinced that she held no danger to herself or others. Mary's parents no longer forced her to go to therapists. This came as a relief to all of them as it was well into middle school before Mary appeared to give up her belief in her 'imaginary friend'. Mary smiled sweetly like a good, innocent Christian girl that hadn't been frolocking with the dead. Yes of course I'm better now, Mother. Of course I'm not seeing things any more. I'm cured now. I was a silly child wasn't I? Ha ha ha ha... Her mother left the room and Mary and Robert turned to catch each others' eyes and laugh. It was their little secret, even if it was a bit lonely. 

 

That is, it was a secret until someone else found out. It was the new kid at school - the gothic one - definitely somebody you would expect to be able to speak to the dead. Mary did not expect anyone but her to be able to speak to or even see Robert so she was in for a surprise when Damien confronted her quietly in private after school. He told her she was being haunted and to please believe him and he could help her exorcise it if she wanted. Mary knew this was going to be the start of a beautiful friendship. She whispered back to him that she knew Robert was following her. He's her friend and before this moment she was the only one who ever saw him. Damien seemed equally surprised that she could see ghosts too. Not ghosts, she corrected him, just Robert. He died when we were younger.

When Damien asked how young, Mary didn't understand at first why he looked so confused at the answer. Robert died when he was just five years old. If that's true, why did he look the same age Mary and Damien were now? Mary did not know why. Robert did not know why. Damien did not know why. 

  
The collective agreement amongst the three of them is that they had to find out. They retreated to the school library and, when they found nothing, they retreated to the town library instead. Despite their efforts, despite their countless hours of searching, despite their commitment to the cause, it turned out that both school and small town libraries didn't hold any books about the undead. The librarian was just as unhelpful as the library itself, telling them to stop talking instead of answering their questions. If they didn't find answers soon, Mary was going to flip out. It would not be pretty. 

 

Mary distracted herself from the frustration by occasionally leaving to another aisle and spying on Robert and Damien as they were left alone. Robert acted his cool, quiet self but Mary could tell he was nervous. Damien ducked his head and spoke in short, quiet sentences with a faint blush across his cheeks. This was a wild transformation from his usual, confident flowery sentences. But even tormenting her two friends couldn't amuse Mary for too long. 

 

They were soon back to searching for answers. Eventually they almost forgot about it, after months and months of hanging out as friends. Most of the time Mary and Damien could even pretend that Robert was a physical, human being. The three of them tended to only hang out with each other.

 

They gave up. The three of them let the idea go and gave up for months until a blond haired, blue eyed boy walked up to Mary and introduced himself as Joseph. Mary smiled as she shook his hand and Robert leaned over to whisper in her ear that he had dibs.

Mary waited until Joseph left for the day before telling Robert that he'd have to find a body to possess before he could get into any sort of cat fights. They stared at each other before rushing to the closest bookshop. Mary paid for all the books on possession she could find and gave no mind to the cashier regarding her with a nervous stare. She called up Damien as they walked home and they gathered their group to research. They pored over the books for weeks before they came to a single conclusion - the only way to bring Robert back is to find his own body. 

 

Joseph mysteriously disappeared for a few days. When he came back he had a scar on his hand that Mary didn't ask about. He could see Robert when he came back. Mary didn't ask about that either. She probably didn't want to know.

 

Instead, Mary told Joseph that they needed to find Robert's body and they needed a priest to perform the ritual. Joseph smiled sweetly as he kissed her cheek and offered to get ordained. Mary smiled sweetly as she drove Damien and Joseph and Robert to the forest where Robert went missing. They told their parents they were going on a camping trip and told their school they were sick and needed a few days off. 

 

They searched and searched and searched the forest but couldn't find anything. Mary frowned as she realised that this meant his body either wasn't here or it was buried. Robert stood in a clearing and, as she approached, dropped to his knees and started trying to scrape away at the ground with his bare hands. His hands don't touch the ground. Mary grabbed her shovel from the trunk of her car and started digging. 

 

And kept digging. And digging. And digging. Until she hit something soft. Mary threw aside her shovel and dug into the dirt with her hands. She pulled up Robert's body - a body that matched the age of his ghost. Mary placed her hand on his chest and felt a heartbeat.

 

Impossible. An aging ghost was also impossible so she ignored it. 

 

Robert was her best friend and therefore she believed he could do anything. Even keep his body breathing while being buried alive and existing as a ghost. Damien and Robert burst through the trees next to the clearing with loud exclamations about how they hadn't been able to find Mary or Robert for hours. 

 

The air around the clearing shimmered while none of them were looking. They surrounded Robert's body and Mary and Robert directed Joseph's ceremony to possess the body. The three of them witnessed as Robert's ghost lay down inside his body. 

 

Damien took one of his hands, blushing as he glanced at Mary. Joseph took the other hand in both of his and didn't look at Mary. 

She didn't bother thinking about that. She was smarter than most people thought. She knew both of these boys were in love with her Robert. She knew she was in love with one of them and that the other one was her special boy. She also knew that Robert was _hers_. 

 

So when Robert gasped himself awake, she beat both of the boys to the punch when she planted a solid, enthusiastic kiss on Robert's lips. Robert surprised her too when he kissed back, wrapping his arms around her. Damien kissed Robert as Mary turned the other way to kiss Joseph, who seemed to be the only one confused with the situation. Mary laughed. Don't question it, she advised him, just go with it.

**Author's Note:**

> Have this thing I made, I'll just leave it here. Hope you guys like it - please let me know in the comments :)
> 
> (Fun Fact: You can probably tell but I didn't decide to put them all in a poly type situation until I had a sudden thought near the very end :D )


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